et non sapientior

In the midst of our national navel-gazing over granting non-citizens who try to murder hundreds of Americans the same ‘rights’ as those they tried to slaughter let’s not forget what real torture, real inhuman brutality looks like

Alistair Urquhart was just 20 when he was called up in World War II. For 60 years, he has remained silent about the relentless brutality he endured at the hands of the Japanese army. Now, he reveals the full horror of his 750 days as a Far East prisoner-of-war. Here, in our first extract of his compelling autobiography, we learn of his capture and enforced labour on the notorious ‘Death Railway’.

Read the whole thing. It’s horrifying and tough to get through, but it serves as a valuable reminder of what torture and depravity really are.

American International Group (AIG) this morning warned that it may need more help from the U.S. government, but the insurer said it will have adequate liquidity to “finance and operate AIG’s businesses and continue as a going concern for at least the next twelve months.”

Shares fell $1.94, or 7%, to $25.47.

AIG received a bailout totaling more than $180 billion from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department starting in the fall of 2008, when the economic crisis began. Taxpayers now own nearly 80% of AIG as a result of the government’s interventions.

AIG also said it lost $8.9 billion, or $65.51 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2009. AIG lost $61.7 billion, the largest quarterly loss in the company’s history, in the same period a year earlier.

So they went from losing $62 billion to “only” losing $9 billion…in a freakin’ quarter. I’m sure they count that as a $53 billion profit for their bonuses.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The IOC will investigate the behavior of Canadian women ice hockey players who celebrated their gold medal by swigging beer and champagne on the ice.

Players came back onto the ice more than half an hour after the 2-0 victory over the United States on Thursday. Still in their uniforms and with gold medals draped around their necks, they drank from bottles of champagne and cans of beer and smoked cigars.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC’s executive director of the Olympic Games, said he was unaware of the incidents until informed by an Associated Press reporter.

“If that’s the case, that is not good,” Felli said. “It is not what we want to see. I don’t think it’s a good promotion of sport values. If they celebrate in the changing room, that’s one thing, but not in public. We will investigate what happened.”

Why shouldn’t they celebrate in public? You, Sir, are an ass who sorely needs a laxative.

Washington refused to endorse British claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands yesterday as the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and at the UN.

Despite Britain’s close alliance with the US, the Obama Administration is determined not to be drawn into the issue. It has also declined to back Britain’s claim that oil exploration near the islands is sanctioned by international law, saying that the dispute is strictly a bilateral issue.

…Senior US officials insisted that Washington’s position on the Falklands was one of longstanding neutrality. This is in stark contrast to the public backing and vital intelligence offered by President Reagan to Margaret Thatcher once she had made the decision to recover the islands by force in 1982.

While a snowstorm is currently underway across upstate New York and New England, the worst has yet to come for the Northeast. A monstrous storm is set to develop across the region on Thursday, unleashing damaging winds, coastal flooding and an all-out blizzard.

Unlike recent storms this winter, the dangers of the upcoming monster will not be confined to one part of the Northeast. The worst of the storm will rage from Thursday afternoon into Friday morning.

Strong winds will gust to or past 50 mph over a large portion of the Northeast, resulting in widespread tree damage and power outages.

Buildings and vehicles may also suffer damage, including from falling trees. In the hardest-hit areas, residents may remain without power for a week.

We’ve been lucky so far on the power front…but if there’s a lot of heavy, wet snow and 50+ mph winds, well, I reckon our luck may run out.

An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

…”This was my heart, my choice and my health,” Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

“I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”

No, but you have worked to make darn sure you took away that right from your constituents, didn’t you?

Eight months later, in December, his doctors told him the problem had become severe and urged him to get his valve repaired immediately or risk heart failure, he said.

And of course that wasn’t really an option up North, eh?

“I wanted to get in, get out fast, get back to work in a short period of time,” the premier said.

Williams said he didn’t announce his departure south of the border because he didn’t want to create “a media gong show,” but added that criticism would’ve followed him had he chose to have surgery in Canada.

“I would’ve been criticized if I had stayed in Canada and had been perceived as jumping a line or a wait list. … I accept that. That’s public life,” he said.

Because his life is more equal than any other Canadian’s.

“God forbid for the Canadian public I won’t be around longer than ever.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Home prices unexpectedly slipped in December but the annual rate of decline slowed, reinforcing the housing market’s rocky road to recovery, Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller indexes showed on Tuesday.

The S&P composite index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in December, matching the dip in November, for a 3.1 percent annual drop.

A Reuters survey had forecast that prices would be unchanged for the month and down 3.2 percent annually following a 5.3 percent annual drop in November.

Scott Brown is not the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan. Would it be nice if he voted against this silly “Jobs Bill”? Of course; hell, they spent $780+ billion last Spring and the unemployment rate went from 8% to 10.1%, so this paltry $15 billion in this Bill should only cost the economy 50,000 jobs or so, a pittance by the current Administration’s standards. The thing to remember is Brown won as a Republican in the one of the heaviest of heavily Democratic states, and so in the Senate the Right will get one of the votes now from Massachusetts occasionally, and that by any measure counts as a big victory. He’s a politician who’s up for re-election in two years, and this vote allows him some cover for that at frankly very little relative cost or damage to our economy.

The British oil rig has arrived and is due to start drilling soon. And as well they should, since it’s British territory.

Argentina has threatened to take “adequate measures” to stop British oil exploration in contested waters around the islands, and is seeking support from Latin American countries at a regional meeting in Mexico.

They can harass shipping to some extent, but unless they get really crazy and get Chavez involved…well, sadly that’s a possibility since he and Kirchner are BFF.

With a British-owned oil rig preparing to drill 100 miles off the coast despite Argentina’s attempts to disrupt exploration efforts, the view of Bill Luxton, a member of the Falklands’ eight-strong ruling assembly, was that “we just need to put two fingers up to them and say get on with it”. It was echoed by many across the South Atlantic islands.

Well, frankly I’d give just a one-fingered salute but these folks are much more polite than I am.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists who are U.S. citizens or live in the country legally and plot against the U.S. are just as big of a concern as international terrorists.

She says that when she started as secretary a year ago, the focus was largely on international terrorists who want to harm U.S. interests. But in the past year, more of the violent extremism that has been seen overseas is showing up in the U.S.

Gosh, yeah. Look at all the bombings and beheadings and mass executions that those Tea Partiers are committing.

Or not.

She says officials need to drill down and analyze the factors that make a young person, raised in the U.S., migrate to extremist beliefs and actions.

So they’re going to investigate Kos and DU?

Good thing she’s found something to focus on, now that airline security is going some swimmingly under her wonderful leadership.

Gordon Brown has accused the Tories of trying to “scare” people into accepting a “bleak” future with talk of the record deficit.

In a speech to centre-left European leaders the prime minister attacked the response of the “well-financed right wing” to the financial crisis.

…”This well-financed right wing are not only trying to blame governments for the crisis, but trying to use legitimate concerns about deficits to scare people into accepting a bleak and austere picture of the future for the majority.”

He accused “the right-wing” of “using the cloak of action” on debt to hide their “real position” – which he said was “an ideology that would always make government the problem and deny people the helping hand that government can be”.